About Bill Cunliffe
William Henry Cunliffe Jr. is an American jazz pianist and composer.
Cunliffe was born in Andover, Massachusetts. He discovered music at an early age, with particular emphasis on classical music as well as jazz-oriented music from the 1960s and 1970s: "My mother was a good pianist...I started just copying little things that I would hear my mom play and I would sit next to her and listen.
Cunliffe described himself as having been drawn to "anything with hip harmony in it" with great melodies, and he loved listening to The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, and Herb Alpert. He attended Phillips Academy and graduated in 1974 in the school's first co–educational class. In college, he performed rock and roll at the Prince Spaghetti House in Saugus, Massachusetts. He attended Wesleyan University for several years. During this time, a friend introduced him to a record by Oscar Peterson, and after listening to this record, Cunliffe became a "jazz player overnight." While in school, he considered careers in medicine and psychology, but in his junior year, he decided finally that "music was it."
After graduating from Duke University, he received his master's degree from the Eastman School of Music.
For two and a half years, Cunliffe taught music at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. He then toured as pianist and arranger with the Buddy Rich Big Band. He returned to Southern Ohio for a few years, where he was the "house pianist" at the Greenwich Tavern in Cincinnati, playing with Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson and James Moody. In 1989 he moved to Los Angeles, and shortly after that won the 1989 Thelonious Monk Jazz Piano Competition, which was judged by pianists Hal Galper, Ahmad Jamal, and Barry Harris. Cunliffe worked occasionally with Buell Neidlinger's group "Thelonious," and in 1990 joined the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and the Clayton Brothers Quartet, recording a number of albums with them. He also worked in duo with jazz flutist Holly Hofmann, touring and recording on the Capri and Azica labels with her, notably, the session "Live at Birdland," with the great bassist Ray Brown.
Cunliffe made three jazz albums for Warner/Discovery Records which achieved recognition in nationwide jazz polls, including Bill in Brazil during a stint in Rio de Janeiro that was well received. He recorded several albums for Azica Records, including Satisfaction, a solo piano outing, Live at Rocco, with his sextet, and Partners in Crime, a Hammond B3 session with guitarist Jim Hershman and drummer Jeff Hamilton. In 2000, he recorded a sextet session of Earl Zindars' music, and in 2001 Cunliffe documented his working trio of ten years with Live at Bernies, which was released on both CD and vinyl. Cunliffe has been a member of LaBarbera's quintet featuring saxophonist Bob Sheppard and trumpeter Clay Jenkins virtually since its formation in the early 1990s.
In 2003, Cunliffe recorded his Latin octet Imaginacion, on Torii, which reached No. 2 in nationwide radio jazz charts. He is a Baldwin Pianos artist, and was Marian McPartland's guest on her famed Piano Jazz radio show in 1998.
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